___

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Politics. One of my least favorite subjects. As it stands, politics has a very unifying and universal feel about it; it serves as a great waste of time, money, and resources, while providing an affront to human decency and intelligence wherever it is practiced.And yet, this noble occupation and artform (hey, pickpocketing is an artform if done well) consumes a great part of our attention and our lives. In America, it seems politics has come to consume a greater share of our daily lives, even as people claim they are feeling increasingly alienated from the political process and everyday "politics" between groups and individuals. Still, few things have as great a hold on our national attention as the key election cycles. As we enter the runup to the 2008 presidential campaign, let's examine our interaction with the political and media circus/machine. We'll also look at some of the financial and economic trends that are likely to develop with the next election. Now since I don't like to spend a lot of time thinking about or dealing with these issues (and I'll bet that you don't either), let's have a look at two concise, yet meaningful, articles that examine these subjects.

First, Martin Weiss of the Safe Money Report gives us his view of, "The Zaniest U.S. Election Campaign of Modern Times". Weiss feels that given the state of our national economy and political situation, we might be headed for a period of greater dollar weakness and an environment of higher taxes and government regulation. Says Weiss: Yes, it may be too early in the presidential campaign to speculate about who might win. But it’s not too early to analyze the financial consequences, regardless of who wins.

You certainly don't have to jump aboard Weiss' investment recommendations or buy into his economic outlook, but his ability to take in complex topics and trends and boil them down to an understandable level makes this a worthwhile read. And from Joe Duarte, a thoughtful piece entitled, "Election Obsession: Sobering Thoughts on America". Hope you are able to get something out of both of these articles. If you feel that you did, be sure to pass them on (you can do so easily by clicking the "email post" icon).